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King Mombo

<h2 class='c007'>CHAPTER XX</h2> WE START AFTER THE GORILLAS—CAUTIOUS WALKING THROUGH THE FOREST—THE DOGS FIND THE NGINA—YELLS OF THE MONSTER BROUGHT TO BAY—HE SLAUGHTERS TWO OF THE DOGS—TAUNTS OF THE HUNTERS—SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AT LAST. Early in the morning, just at dawn of day, I was ready for the start. Soon Oshoria, Ogoola, Ngola, and Quabi made their appearance. What a sight they were! Their bodies were daubed all over with ochre of different colors, a sign that they were on the war-path. Each wore a broad belt of charmed leopard skin over which incantations from the medicine doctor had been made the day before, and which were thereupon pronounced by him invulnerable against spears, arrows, and bullets. They were all covered with “mondahs,” which also had been made powerful by incantations and were to protect their lives. They would never have started for the hunt without these. These charms were made of skins of rare animals which enclosed the dried flesh and brains of rare monkeys and birds, teeth of crocodiles and leopards, 143feathers of birds, fangs and brains of snakes, ashes of animals’ intestines that had been burned by the medicine doctor, and rare and precious land shells, filled with charmed ingredients. Oshoria wore a charmed iron chain which had been forged in a far country. This chain was looked upon by all the slaves as the most invincible of all charms, for Oshoria had met many dangerous and ferocious beasts, he had killed several nginas, and had never been wounded. This chain ran from his left shoulder to his right side. The men had left that morning in the forest an offering of a leg of an antelope to the spirits Olombo and Mombo to propitiate their good will, so that they should give them good luck. Before starting, my hunters cut the backs of their hands in several places before one of the idols, and mixed their blood with earth and some kind of dust and clay, with which each filled a land shell, carried by every man in a bag, that also contained a special little idol, to guard and protect them from harm. They neglected nothing to insure their lives. Regundo invoked the spirits of his ancestors in a loud voice and called upon them to follow us and protect us. When everything was ready we went to the canoes 144that were waiting for us. Into one we put the dogs, Ogoola and Ngola going with them; Oshoria and Quabi, and the two men who had brought us news of the presence of the nginas and were to act as our guides were in my canoe. Regundo followed us to the river and, taking my hands, blew on them and wished me success. We paddled along until we came to a tree under which the spirit called Mbuiri was supposed to rest sometimes and look at the river. The men danced and sang under it. Then we continued our way upon the silent river—lined all along with the dense forest. We saw two huge black and yellow snakes in the water. Afterwards we met a troop of monkeys which from a tree were looking towards the other side of the river. They were chattering among themselves in great earnest. They wanted, I thought, to cross to the other side—but the river was too wide. When we came near them they stopped chattering, and looked down upon us as we passed. When far enough away we heard them chattering again. Further up we landed near a large tree, where I saw a path. We partook of a light meal, and then, making our canoes secure among the reeds that hid them from sight, we started. This path led to the plantation of 145the two men who had brought the news of the nginas. The dogs were led by leashes, for we did not want them to run in the forest. As we marched in single file, not one of us spoke a word. Two or three times we heard troops of monkeys travelling in the forest. Once we heard the shrill cries of a flock of parrots. Suddenly we came upon a great number of pineapple plants; many of the pine-apples had been eaten up. Oshoria looked at me and said: “Nginas have been here,—not to-day, but two or three days ago.” We continued our way and discovered in a muddy part of the path four footprints of nginas. Their heel-prints were deep in the mud—but the toe-prints were hardly visible. Two of the heels were much larger than the other two. “The big footprints are those of a man ngina,” said Oshoria; “the smaller ones are those of his wife.” When looking round I saw two tiny footprints and pointed them out to Oshoria who said: “Those are the footprints of the baby ngina.” Further on we saw along the path a place where the nginas had tarried, for the jungle was much broken, and some of the saplings had been broken and partly chewed or eaten up. This looked as if it had been done the day before. We all agreed that the nginas were in the neighborhood. 146We slept in the forest that night. Before daylight we were up. I painted my face and hands black with powdered charcoal mixed with oil so that I might not be easily seen. Men from the plantation, who had come to meet us, took charge of the dogs. After two hours’ walk we stopped, and one of the guides said something to Oshoria in a very low voice which I could not hear. Then Oshoria said: “We had better loose the dogs and let them go.” In the twinkling of an eye they were in the forest and out of sight. We entered a large field of plantain trees. Oshoria led, I followed, then came Ngola, Ogoola, and then Quabi. We walked very silently, and our excitement was so great that we could hear each other pant. After a while Oshoria was quite a distance ahead of all of us. He was the scout, and we had lost sight of him through the crookedness of the path. I stopped to see if we were all at hand and then we continued our way, when, after passing a bend in the path, I saw Oshoria standing still waiting for us. As soon as he saw us he gave the cluck of danger, “Kluk, kluk,” put his hand on his mouth as a sign not to speak, then his hand towards his ear as a sign for us to listen. We walked towards him without uttering a word, but looked towards each other. Then Oshoria pointed with his 147finger in a certain direction. He had evidently heard something that had attracted his attention there. Soon we heard the peculiar shrill piercing cry of fear of a ngina. Oshoria whispered to me: “That is the cry of a female gorilla who is afraid and has fled. Probably she has scented the dogs and given the cry of distrust and fear to her mate.” Immediately after we heard the barking of our dogs, followed by the tremendous yells of defiance and fight of a huge male gorilla “Whoah, whoah;” then roars that filled the forest with their din, and seemed to be like the sound of thunder along the sky. These roars almost entirely drowned the fierce barking of the fourteen dogs. “It is a man ngina,” whispered Oshoria. “His mate has fled. Let us prepare ourselves for a fight.” Instinctively we came still nearer together and looked at our guns; my hunters’ guns were loaded with plugs of iron, plugs which they use to kill elephants. I looked at “Bulldog” and said: “Thou faithful rifle, which hast never failed me before in time of danger, be true to me to-day, be true to me!” “Let us go and fight this man ngina,” shouted my men with eagerness in their eyes and a sort of ferocious joy. This time they were not afraid of being heard, for they knew that the huge beast was 148brought to bay and would not run away, but attack. We advanced through the plantain trees, many of which had been pulled down by the two nginas. Every step forward increased the terrific din made by the fierce barking of the dogs and the angry roars of the ngina. We came nearer and nearer the border of the forest, and soon caught sight of the dogs. Looking in the direction where the most forward and daring of them were barking, we saw a huge male gorilla with his back against a tree and following with his eyes the dogs that surrounded him. Evidently the huge fiendish creature had never been attacked by dogs before. He was bewildered by their number and did not know what to do except to yell and roar at them. He was seated, ready to use his powerful long arms or his feet, catching the dogs with his terrible manlike hands if they came near him. The dogs knew this and were cautious in their attack; they advanced and retreated, led by “Bloodthirsty” and “Pouncer,” closely followed by the others. Suddenly the gorilla’s yells and roars stopped. He had seen us, and he did not know what to make of these new enemies. His eyes glanced from the dogs to us—he seemed to know that if he went after one of the dogs the others would fall on him from everywhere. What a sight! The huge creature seemed the incarnation 149of ugliness. “No other creature in the world can look so ugly,” I said to myself. His legs were short and bent, he had such a broad chest and such a protruding abdomen, that it appeared to contain at least a barrel of the food he had devoured. He had big, powerful, muscular long arms, and huge paws, of which the fingers were short and thick. His huge foot had four toes and one thumb. His body was thinly covered with hair, his face was intensely black—blue-black—his eyes were deeply sunken in his head, and he looked straight at us, as if he were a human being. Tigers, lions, dogs, and other animals never can look in that way. The sockets of his eyes were evidently like those of man, allowing him to look in the same manner. His hair stood erect all over his body owing to his rage—and that on his head moved up and down, and he beat his breast. But in spite of all that he had an anxious expression in his eyes, which were looking all round, for he had never been surrounded by so many enemies before, dogs and men, and this was the reason he had put himself against a tree—so that no dog could attack him from behind—and thus placed he could see all his foes. Our guns were pointed at him in the direction of his heart, and at the least advance he made towards us we would have fired. The only thing I feared was that 150instead of advancing erect to attack us, he would drop on all fours, being surrounded by so many enemies, and would run towards us in that posture; then it would have been far more difficult to shoot at and wound him mortally. I noticed blood on one of his hands and then I saw at about five or six feet from him the prostrate form of one of the dogs. It was “Fierce.” My men saw the dog at the same time—“Fierce” was one of the most intrepid of their dogs. They shouted to the ngina: “You have killed fierce ‘Fierce.’ We will kill you also.” The gorilla became so hard pressed by the dogs that he had no time to yell, for he was too busy looking round for them; he only uttered now and then, when one came too near, a “Whoah wah.” The dogs were ready to spring on him as soon as they had an opportunity. They watched their time, but the huge ngina was watching them also; he knew what they were about, and as soon as they came within his reach he would, by a sudden motion of his long arm shoot it forward and try to catch the most daring one that came near him, sometimes using his legs and feet instead. My hunters were cool—but they were on the war-path and had met their enemy. Oshoria, Ngola, Ogoola, Quabi, shouted words of defiance to the gorilla such as—“We are men. Yes, we are men. Come towards us, if you dare. We are <div id='t150' class='figcenter id001'> <ANTIMG src='images/p1501_ill.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> <div class='ic001'> "The big monster ... seized 'Bloodthirsty' and threw him dead on the ground" </div> </div> 151ok at us straight in the face. We laugh at you. How do you dare to yell at the Oguizi. Soon you will hear ‘Bulldog’ talk to you. Our guns will talk to you also. Ngina, you are a coward—come towards us if you are not afraid. You have only a short time to live; soon you will lie dead at the feet of the Oguizi.” Then they gave a terrific war-cry, the one used before attacking their enemy, and the gorilla uttered a terrific yell of defiance in response. The dogs had become bolder and bolder, and more and more angry. Suddenly “Bloodthirsty” came too near the ngina, and before he had time to retreat, and quicker than the eye could follow, the big monster had sent his powerful arm forward and with his huge hand seized “Bloodthirsty” and threw him dead on the ground. At this the other dogs, enraged by the loss of their two companions, lost control of themselves—forgot all prudence—and as they were on the point of jumping on the huge beast, which now was uttering terrific yells, I, not wishing the men to lose more dogs, said “Fire!” and we all shot at the same time. The huge monster fell forward on his face, shot through the heart. In the twinkling of an eye the dogs jumped on him and he was torn to pieces. 152Poor “Fierce” and “Bloodthirsty,” were dead. Regundo was right when he said that if we met with nginas all the dogs would not return. Then my hunters went round the ngina, and, looking at him, shouted: “We were not afraid of you. When the Oguizi looked at you, it was just the same as if you were dead, for he had made up his mind to kill you as soon as he saw you.” Then I cut off his head, as a trophy, and, carrying it with us, we went back to the plantation and saw our three guides, who had left us as soon as they thought the nginas were near. We laughed at them. The following day we were on our way back to my hunters’ home. When we reached the plantation, Oshoria carried the head of the gorilla on a pole, Regundo and the other people welcoming us back with great expressions of joy. In the meantime, my clock had stopped, and was silent under the veranda, and Regundo and the other people thought that the spirits that were in it had followed me. Their belief in this increased when they saw that after my return the tick of the clock began again. 153 <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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